Nothing, except tattoo each with a homemade tattoo gun made out of cobbled up wiring and a sharpened guitar string, that is.

Marsh and her boyfriend Jacob Bartels gave each of their six children — ages 10 through 17 — a tattoo of a black cross on their hand, using a handmade tattoo gun. Marsh told CNN that she’s got several tattoos drawn with the homemade gun, and that the kids all wanted one, too. “I’m their mother,” Marsh told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Shouldn’t I be able to decide if they get one?”

According to Georgia state law, no. It’s illegal there for anyone under 18 to get a tattoo, even from their parents. Marsh and Bartels were reported to authorities by Bartels’ children’s mother, who noticed that tattoos after picking the kids up after a weekend with their dad. They face charges of illegal tattooing, reckless behavior, and cruelty to children.

“…The kids don’t think we did anything wrong,” Marsh says. Ask them that in 10 years, when they’re stuck with a tattoo on their hand they can’t take off.

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